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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Fraud Alert

This woman and I entered into a wholesale NOT private label agreement wherein she would sell Sudstress soaps that I have spent the last 5 years developing, photographing, branding and trademarking. As it turns out, she has been selling them under fraudulent pretenses and claiming that she spent the years, sweat, blood and tears that I have creating a product and brand. She is NOT a member of the handcrafted soapmaker's guild, though I am, and has fraudulently used their logo on her blog. I guess it's another earmark of success, but it's infuriating none the less. Here is the blog in which she has stolen all of my pictures, sans packaging, my website and etsy content word for word:

http://www.thewrightsoap.blogspot.com/

She's since taken it down per my request but stated in her last email that I've ruined her good name and that she is going to keep the site for her new soap shop. Her initial emails inquired if the soaps would be greasy because of all the oils used, which indicates that she knows nothing of the basic chemistry behind soapmaking. Based on her latest email, she recommends that I copyright my photos and protect my soap (and perhaps I should) like she "did as soon as (she) came up with a recipe as good as (mine)" ...apparently now she makes soap? Here are the screen shots of her blog, from which she still intends to sell soap. Whose it is and whether she will claim to have made it remains to be seen.






The difference between a private label agreement and falsely claiming to be the manufacturer doesn't seem to exist in this woman's mind. She seems to think that because Sudstress is trademarked, that's where the problem lies. That would be the case if she made soap herself and tried to sell it under the Sudstress name. She had permission to sell my soap until I found out that she was claiming to have made it herself.

4 comments:

Zenitude said...

Shame on her! She must have closed her website cause I can't find it anymore.

FuturePrimitive Soap Co. said...

I see she's removed the blog...the link doesn't work....
Wot a biatch though!

Don't worry...we all know who YOU are and your styles speak volumes. Nobody could get away with it for long x

emacgrass said...

wow - this truly makes me feel sick to my stomach!! what on earth was she thinking?? what makes this even worse is that i know how much time and effort you put into all things sudstress...photography, copywriting, website design, marketing, etc. ugh.

Kelly said...

Wow,
so sorry this happened to you and a reminder that though wholesaling might seem lucrative, there are risks. Thank you for sharing.
kelly(simplyworn.etsy)